Skoto Gallery is pleased to present Owu (Threading), an exhibition of recent mixed media sculpture by the Nigerian-born artist Ifeoma Anyaeji. This will be her second solo show at the gallery. The artist will be present at the reception on Thursday, September 24th, 6-8pm.

Ifeoma Anyaeji’s recent work continues her exploration of discarded materials, its quality and physical nature, placing emphasis on process to activate a meaningful engagement and creative openness that strives to reinvigorate newly acquired techniques and ideas. Her work centers on the idea of up-cycling or concept of material re-use such as the ubiquitous non-biodegradable plastic bags and bottles into something of greater value and unorthodox, eliciting unique elements of ripeness and continuous growth. Using traditional hair plaiting techniques from her homeland, she threads and braids discarded plastic bags into plasto-yarns combined with a strong compositional ability into complex yet lyrical visual narratives filtered through cultural memories and contemporary realities that reflect subtle understanding of context and an awareness of the relationship between function and experimentation.

Ifeoma Anyaeji’s work is dense with visual complexity that reflects an awareness of a vast array of both formal and inherited traditions while exploring their aesthetic, sensual, and visual content to assert a different declaration, and a new way of making art. By imbuing mundane materials, marks and processes with surprising significance and intricate design, her work is transformed into an extraordinary visual poetry with rich textures of vibrations and pulsations that allow the viewer a freedom of imagination, interpretation and emotional response. The exhibition includes a strong selection of new works that are persistently innovative and demonstrate an awareness of the expressive possibilities of abstraction while encouraging us to probe into common elements of the human experience. “Queen Eliza” mimics the wannabe look of a young ‘fashionista’, merging a conspicuous, traditional and almost uncoordinated webbed hair-do with fancy psychedelic heels cropped from colonial fashion, challenging the line between newness and the new. ‘Made in ‘Shina’ speaks the language of an accrued compulsive material acquisition and an architectural build-up of these acquisitions – of course almost all made in ‘Shina’.

Ifeoma Anyaeji was born 1981 in Benin City, Nigeria. She obtained an undergraduate degree in Painting with honors from the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria in 2005 and as a Ford Foundation International Fellow, she obtained her MFA, Sculpture in 2012 at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, USA. She has participated in several solos and group exhibitions at home and abroad, including ‘Reclamation’, University of Missouri, Columbia in 2012 and Basket Case II, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, 2014. She was the Washington University in St Louis Nominee for the 2012 International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student Achievement Award. She is in several collections in Africa, Europe and the US. She is in the faculty at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and currently pursuing a PhD program at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

The HUMA students met today for our general assembly and the majority voted in favor of continuing the strike until our next General Assembly on Monday, April 13th at 11am in the HUMA Lounge. Please join us to be apart of the discussions (digitally too!)

In solidarity with other students on strike in Quebec:

Whereas 55 000 students are now on strike;

Whereas the last Quebec government’s budget goes further in the path of austerity;

Whereas the political, administrative and police repression trying to put down the mobilization against austerity;

Whereas the HUMA GSA is on strike against the austerity measures of Couillard’s government since March the 30th;

Be It Resolved That the Concordia Humanities Student Association goes on strike from April 7th to April the 13th against austerity measures on the basis of the claims enunciated in the GA of March 30th;

Be It Resolved That we act in solidarity with the mobilization against oil economy, and with the students living political repression;

Be it Resolved That we participate in the movement in a creative way that minimizes the negative impacts of the mobilization on our student condition;

*We encourage HUMA students who don’t have class to join the movement and participate in the many actions however they see fit.

HUMA Program Students stand in solidarity with Concordia students against the new Austerity measures:

Following our general assembly of March 30th, the HUMA students have voted to go on strike, starting today and until April 3rd:

Please see the following voted motion for details on how the strike will affect HUMA students.

Whereas the government of Quebec is effectuating compressions in education, in the context of so-called austerity measures referred to as “budgetary compressions”;

Whereas Concordia University has been requested to make over $15.7 million in cuts to its own budget, and has already begun this process by attempting to eliminate 180 jobs through its “Voluntary Departure Program”;

Whereas the quality and accessibility of our education is directly and negatively impacted by austerity measures;

Whereas austerity measures are part of a larger neoliberal trend of raising user fees while decimating public services (healthcare, childcare, pensions, etc.) at a time when the wealthiest people and the largest corporations are enjoying record profits and decreasing taxes; and whereas that measures negatively affect us as students;

Whereas various student, worker, and community associations at Concordia and across Quebec are currently organizing against austerity; whereas 66 student associations, representing 55 000 students on 10 campus, are now in general strike renewablel; including more than 4000 students from Concordia;

Whereas more thant 102 000 students will be on strike to participate to the demonstration against austerity organized by ASSÉ April the 2nd;

Whereas actions are organized everyday between the 30th of March and April the 2nd;

Be It Resolved That the Concordia Humanities Student Association denounce the prevailing government discourse of austerity and “budgetary compressions,”

Be It Further Resolved That the Concordia Humanities Student Association urge Concordia’s administration to follow the bold example of the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) and the English Montreal School Board (EMSB), and refuse budget cuts;

Be It Further Resolved That the Concordia Humanities Student Association join the movement against austerity by going on strike from March the 30th to April the 3rd; a GA will be organized April the 7th (9 :00 AM) to reconsiderate this motion;

Be It Further Resolved That hard picket lines will be organized (as possible) on the courses related to the HUMA program; Strike means ‘’interruption of all the academic activities’’; but in our context, this means that Humanities students will cease all work from Humanities courses; however Humanities students in other courses can, in fact, complete their work so that they are not isolated and penalized for their actions;

*We encourage HUMA students who don’t have class to join the movement and participate in the many actions however they see fit;

Come Join Us! March 13th and 14th

Re-Originality is the theme of Concordia University’s 2015 Annual Graduate Humanities Conference and a call to reflect on the ways in which we create and position our work.

In line with this year’s theme, the conference is also pushing the ways in which we present and share knowledge: ‘lighting round’ presentations, interactive re-eating food demonstrations, participatory workshops and traditional panels are just some of our offerings.

Keynote speaker, Marcus Boon, presents “Is There Life Beyond Mimesis?” to end the conference activities on Saturday evening.